Lessons From Nature

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.  -Lao Tzu

I recently took myself on a week long vacation by myself.  In all of the possibilities of where to travel to, I knew the mountains were calling to me. My entire life I've been drawn to nature, knowing my body feels most at ease and peaceful when among the glory of the outdoors.  To be alone, me and nature.  So I packed up and drove off into the sunset (literally) to take a break from the daily life of motherhood, solopreneuer and relationships with others so I could relax, renew and come back home, to me.  

Throughout my trip and while in the mountains, I continued to hear nature speaking to me, sharing in life lessons we can learn from nature.  Here are a few of those beautiful lessons:

Courage to travel from the comfortable into the unknown, it's where growth truly lies.

I left home in the middle of the afternoon, traveling for 8 hours to my destination.  It wasn't lost upon me that when I left my house it was light out, the place I feel most comfortable.  As I journeyed towards Colorado, the sun set and I was driving into darkness, the unknown.  I felt my body shift as I left the light and moved into the darkness.   I knew in my soul I was meant to take this trip and it didn't mean I wasn't experiencing feelings of uncertainty, scared, guilt and self-doubt.   Traveling into the dark, the unknown and dark of these feelings, I had an opportunity to really lean into questioning these feelings and grow myself.  

Can you follow your intuition, move forward with courage even when you're feeling afraid and unsure?   Move away from what is comfortable (the light) and into the unknown of the darkness.

Do you pause and celebrate?

When climbing a mountain, it’s only natural to pause and celebrate when you reach the top because there is nothing else to do except go back down.  Celebration is easy at the top of a physical mountain.

What about in real-life?  Do you pause, rest and celebrate when you achieve a goal?  

Or are you quickly filling up another to-do list?  Writing new goals and moving onto the next task before even taking a moment to reflect and celebrate what you have accomplished.

When the going get's tough, take smaller steps.

At a higher altitude and hiking up the mountain, my lungs were on fire, especially as the incline became steeper.  And when I was huffing and puffing up the steep incline, I found myself forcing myself to keep the same pace I was walking on a flat service.  But why?  Isn't life about the ebb and flow and when things get tough, baby steps are still progress.  

Are we too harsh on ourselves for not maintaining a certain speed to get it all accomplished?   Do we allow ourselves to ebb and flow, to take smaller steps when the going gets tough?  Baby steps are still progress.  

Love yourself so much that you give yourself grace everyday!  There are days of great progress and other days is about slower, rest and less.  All are important!  

Sometimes a U-turn is exactly what you need.

You're hiking up the mountain, head down, one foot in front of the other.  You look up to notice a sharp U-turn in the road ahead.  For a moment you may question, should I just cut it off and jet off-road?   Or maybe you feel discouraged because it's the same scenery, just slightly higher.  

And often it's in the U-turn you have the ability to have a new perspective.  A turn in direction, to look to the past while also on a new road.  Sometimes we have to turn around and go seemingly back on the same road, just slightly different, for deeper growth.  Can you feel this in life too?

Trees

Stand firm in who you are.

Be flexible with the world around you.

Sometimes you need to grow a new branch or way that better serves you.

Continue to reach for the sky, sharing your greatness for the world around you.

Trust.  Let go.  More beauty is to come.

Never in competition and always in company.

Find time to rest and become dormant before blooming again. 

All your greatness is within you!

A boulder is for creating new paths.

Sometimes there are unexpected boulders on your path.  In the physical world, you don't hesitate to create a new path around it, headed in a new and possibly better direction. 

Yet when a boulder enters your life, it can cause for panic, distress, hesitation or even quitting the journey all together.  

How can you take the metaphor of a boulder along your hiking path into your life of any boulder that comes your way?  

And my favorite of all,

Talking to plants is one way of talking directly to Spirit.  - Rosemary Gladstar

What lessons do you hear from nature?